Bright Angel Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Bright Angel Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson March 23, 2020

Michael Fields's first and to date only feature film Bright Angel (1990) is one of the unsung road movies produced by indie-friendly Hemdale Film under the auspices of John Daly and Derek Gibson. Fields wrote and directed Noon Wine (1985), which later aired on PBS as part of the American Playhouse Series. He also gained experience as a technical assistant for some of the Merchant Ivory Productions which paved the way for his directorial debut. Fields was a reader of Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Richard Ford, who penned the short-story anthology, Rock Springs, in 1987. Out of the ten short stories, Ford selected "Great Falls" and "Children" to adapt into a full-length screenplay. Sam Shepard was a huge fan of Ford's writings and signed on to act in the film. In Hemdale's production notes, the Illinois-born actor/playwright called Ford's Bright Angel "the best screenplay I've ever worked on." According to writer E.A. Gehman, the movie had a budget of a little under $4 million and took seven seven weeks to film in Billings, Montana during the summer of 1989. Both Dermot Mulroney and Lili Taylor were budding young stars who got cast as leads in the film. Mulroney appeared in several early films (including Young Guns) and Taylor caught Hollywood's attention with key supporting roles in Mystic Pizza (1988) and Say Anything (1989).

The film opens with a father-and-son hunting trip. George (Dermot Mulroney) is flashing bright lights at the ducks while his dad Jack (Sam Shepard) shoots at them. Together they kill a staggering forty-three mallards and George helps his pop sell them. The poaching exercise is a metaphor for George and his friends. They're young and naive who'll become "sitting ducks" for what life will throw at them. One night, they arrive home to find George's mom Aileen (Valerie Perrine) with another man (Will Patton). Jack flips out and sticks a gun underneath Woody's (Patton) jaw, ordering he and Aileen to leave. George also decides that it also may be the right time to go away. He's an 18-year-old high school graduate with hopes of garnering a boxing scholarship at an Eastern college. His dad is a retired Air Force officer who presently works as a railroad switch operator but has never really found any happiness in family life. George visits his American Indian friend, Claude (Benjamin Bratt), who he enjoys drinking beer with and hanging out. Claude's father has a young lady who ran away from her family's farm in Canada. Lucy (Lili Taylor) wants to travel to Casper, Wyoming where she hopes to bail her troubled brother out of jail. The three go on a small fishing expedition together where Claude gets some big catches. But George and Lucy are more interested in getting to know each other than frying some fish and this makes Claude jealous. George decides that it wouldn't be in everyone's best interest if Claude came along so he drops his buddy off before he and Lucy head to Wyoming in his 1972 Chevy Impala. They find life even more difficult there. George loses a small boxing match and gets beaten around. Lucy learns that she must ask one of the witnesses who saw her brother's criminal activity leave town so he won't get subpoenaed. That witness, Bob (Bill Pullman), is rough around the edges as are his business associates, the scam artist Art (Burt Young) and his tough wife, Nina (Sheila McCarthy). Will George and Lucy get the latter's brother out of jail and make it back to Montana?

Road trip.

Bright Angel is an affecting road film across the Great Plains that's also an unsentimental coming-of-age story. I particularly like the section where George visits his aunt, Judy (Mary Kay Place), and her neurotic husband, Harley (Delroy Lindo), a Vietnam veteran. Harley became a paraplegic not in the war but in a freak accident while working in an oil field. He has an entire room full of guns and is ready to use his M-16 if he sees the person who caused his paralysis approach the house. George may initially seem phased by Harley's tough-guy persona but he speaks his mind at the kitchen table and reproaches Harley in front of Judy. Fields and Ford are wise not to force a love story between George and Lucy. They're friendly but are not a compatible couple in the romantic sense. He accompanies in order to help her and her brother out. George also faces a difficult dilemma if he should stay and help "The Man" (Kevin Tighe) in his oil fields. Bright Angel isn't very cheerful but it offers an authentic slice-of-life drama.

Bright Angel Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Bright Angel makes its worldwide debut on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber on this MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-25. The label touts this HD transfer as deriving from a brand-new 2K master. Presented in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1, the thirty-year-old movie looks organic and true to its initial appearance on cinema screens. There are some lovely magic hour shots captured by cinematographer Elliot Davis at dusk and dawn. The image is a bit soft and hazy in places where it also lacks detail and sharpness. Skin tones look natural, including Bill Pullman's ruddy facial complexion (Screenshot #3). Some minor white speckles creep in occasionally but they're not frequent. Kino has encoded the feature at a mean video bitrate of 26943 kbps.

The 93-minute movie comes with eight chapters.

Bright Angel Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Bright Angel was originally presented in Ultra Stereo and Kino has supplied a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo mix (1558 kbps, 16-bit). Kathleen Carroll of the Daily (NY) News complained that she had trouble hearing Lucy/Lily Taylor speak her lines except for only a few moments. "...the soundtrack is so poor it's not always possible to hear Taylor." Fortunately, I didn't have difficulty hearing the actors (including Taylor) on this track. I turned the sound up on my Onkyo and came away very impressed with the spatial depth and range. I could literally hear Claude extend his fishing line out into the water. Ambience and nature sounds are deep and resonant. Composer Christopher Young crafted a mystical score that's haunting and mysterious. He incorporates an eclectic mixture of instruments, including pedal steel guitar, the pennywhistle, pan flutes, and keyboards.

The optional English SDH can be switched on through the menu or via remote activation during the feature.

Bright Angel Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• NEW Audio Commentary by Director Michael Fields - Fields has recorded a new, above-average commentary that would have been great had he been guided by a moderator. He starts off well but the track is laced with gaps. He give his interpretation of certain scenes but sometimes has the habit of merely describing the on-screen action. In English, not subtitled.

• Theatrical Trailer (2:09, 480i) - a decent-looking original trailer for Bright Angel that's marred by some dirt.

• Bonus Previews - some trailers for other older films in Kino's catalog.

• Leaflet - an eight-page booklet with a painting, cast list, stills from the movie, and a new essay by Richard Ford.

Bright Angel Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Watching Bright Angel I wish that Michael Fields had gone on to direct more movies for the silver screen. (He's made a career out of directing a lot of TV series.) His film is a pretty uncompromising look at two teens' journey through the Great Plains and their maturation process toward adulthood. Dermot Mulroney and Lili Taylor should be commended for their stellar performances. Kino Lorber has delivered a rock-solid transfer and a surprisingly good lossless sound track. The audio commentary by Fields is fairly good but has several brief gaps. I'm hoping that Kino or another label also releases Ed Zwick's Leaving Normal (1992) on Blu-ray too. A SOLID RECOMMENDATION.